Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. Buddha.

The present—The Present—each instant is a present a wonderful gift where all is given that is needed and wanted and desired. Right now in this Present Gift there are no needs, wants or desires. God is here in the Eternal, Timeless Present and all is given and received as One.

This Communion of the Union between all eliminates the “between” into a seamless harmony of sound, space, thought and vibration into and out of the energy of love; supported, nurtured and unified into one whole present, holy moment, where all communion is NOW.

There is only peace, now in this Present, where all is provided and nothing is needed, there can only be Peace, Love and Joy.

If there is pain I have brought it from the past. If there is fear I have brought it from the future. Neither place exists and yet without them I would not be held in the synchronicity of the Present. The movement away and the drawing toward keep me in balance and equipoised in a place of serenity of the perfection of the present.

These next few posts are going to be a bit different than the devotional posts I have written lately. It will be expositional in nature dealing with the very important topic of spiritual growth and the obstacles we face on the road to Oneness with God.

The first obstacle: spiritual pride.

There are several ways to interpret what is going on here and each has its value in helping us to understand what John is relaying to us in the confrontation between Jesus and “the people”.

Verse 31 tells us these were “people who had faith in him.”

Taken literally we are confronted with an historical incident in the life of Jesus between a group of people who didn’t understand (v.43) what Jesus was saying (v.31 he wants to help his new believers get free.) or doing. There are accusations thrown back and forth; “the people” are demonizing someone who is threatening them and Jesus is returning their accusations. It is the typical argument of I’m right and you’re wrong with a loaded charge thrown in, of demon possession, from both sides. And quite frankly if I came upon a group of people arguing in this way I would just turn around and leave. Honestly these types of exchanges are nothing but the mudslinging of children throwing tantrums. But that is on the surface, the literal historical event which has been played out for centuries between any warring factions, with the inevitable result that one group will want to kill the other: v.59 “The people picked up stones to kill Jesus.”

In other words: “I’m right and you’re wrong and I’m gonna kill you for being ‘wrong’–i.e. not agreeing with me. If there is any lesson to be learned form this literal story it is things have not changed much over the eons that man has been on the planet. This is especially noticeable in the religious and political arenas. And much of the time there has not been the luxury of a separation between church and state as we have in the western influenced world.

“The people” here are the fruit of the religious leaders; the Sadducees and the Pharisees, Jesus’ usual antagonists. I have read that the literacy of the common people in Jesus’ day was maybe 10% and most of those were the religious leaders. What the people were defending were the things taught to them by their religious culture (at that time all the Hebrew culture was religious/political), they did not have the luxury of looking into the scriptures themselves. They were defending their entire world view taught to them, the Hebrew paradigm of the day.

I think it is important to point out that the Hebrew people and their leaders were not the enemy as some have tried to enlist Jesus in their hatred of another race—they just did not understand, this makes them a symbol for the entire human race, they didn’t know what they are doing. Jesus used many metaphors for their spiritual condition: blind, sick, ignorant, crippled, deaf. Jesus never tried to kill anyone and killing another in his name is my definition of taking the Lords name in vain.

Swedenborg pointed out that when we try to kill someones belief we are actually trying to kill that person because a persons faith is actually what keeps them alive. If you have ever seen anyone who has lost their faith you know what he means.

This is the first obstacle we face on the road to Oneness with God, found in those new to their beliefs (no matter how long one has been a believer). “My way is the right way and yours is not.” Our pride quickly gets in the way as the result of our insecurity, not being quite sure of this new way of thinking. Spiritual pride and self-righteousness will be the fruit of this insecurity if not quickly dealt with. And if it is fostered by those in leadership ones spiritual growth will be limited and after a while non-existent. Hatred will be the result and it will be easy to find targets for those wanting an outlet for their anger. See verse 44.

Well there is so much more in these verses beyond the literal and I will get to them in the following posts. For now it will be good to remember My way is the right way for me at this time in my life and your way is the right way for you at this point in your life and respect and tolerance for all our brothers and sisters as they progress toward the Truth that sets us free.

“I lift up my mind and heart to be aware, to understand and to know that the Divine Presence I AM is the Source and Substance of ALL my Good.”

The following quote from The Course in Miracles is my lesson for today:

Lesson 267 – My heart is beating in the peace of God

Surrounding me is all the life that God created in His Love. It calls to me in every heartbeat and in every breath; in every action and in every thought. Peace fills my heart, and floods my body with the purpose of forgiveness. Now my mind is healed, and all I need to save the world is given me. Each heartbeat brings me peace; each breath infuses me with strength. I am a messenger of God, directed by His Voice, sustained by Him in love, and held forever quiet and at peace within His loving arms. Each heartbeat calls His Name, and everyone is answered by His Voice, assuring me I am at home in Him.

“Let me attend Your Answer, not my own. Father, my heart is beating in the peace the Heart of Love created. It is there and only there that I can be at home.”

There is a sense of security in the idea of ‘Home’. The ideal Home is a place of belonging, welcoming, always provided for, a place of Peace and comfort and the feeling of being unconditionally loved and accepted. At home as a child I feel connected to “…the source and substance of all my good”

How this is experienced for each of us depends on the level of consciousness of the parents at the time they were raising us.

I think deep within every being is implanted the notion of “Home”. The exceptions to this ideal only proves its presence by the longings we feel in life for its fulfillment. We try in marriage to build what was lacking in our growing up and hope to gain unconditional love, Peace, acceptance, joy and goodness only to find we fall short of this feeling here as well.

Many of us came to the spiritual path looking for the fulfillment of this promise. After trying many different sources of comfort and experiencing failure we turn to God the Father/Mother of a new family.

As a friend told me about her experience in Church: “They all seemed so happy there.”

For those of you who have recently joined me on my Prosperity journey, this is inspired by The Abundance Book by John Randolph Price. His forty day plan involves 10 meditations repeated 4 times. These posts are the journaling he recommends we do following each days meditations.

“God is lavish, unfailing Abundance, the rich omnipresent substance of the universe. This all-providing Source of infinite prosperity is individualized as me—The Reality of me.”

On day fourteen I was contemplating our physical being and how it was made out of other things that in themselves are not our physical being. That who I am and also what everything else is, is made from trillions of things that are not us. That everything is empty of an individual self, and yet somehow this other stuff has all congealed into what we experience in the physical.

We are also mental and Spiritual beings. The physical is the lowest energetic vibration in what we ‘see’ or ‘think’ of as ‘solid’. Molecular science points out we are not solid but are made from a whole universe of space in a microcosm of constant movement. It turns out we are not solid at all.

The next level up in the ladder of consciousness is the soul level. This is made of things we do not see; mind, will and emotions. This ‘soul’ is also made of trillions of things–thoughts are ‘things’ on the mental level. to demonstrate this to yourself pay attention to your thoughts and see if you can have two thoughts occupying the same mental space at the same time. If you have spent anytime in meditation you will have discovered that one thought follows another just as cars follow each other on the freeway. You will also discover that you can go between each thought to a place of ‘no thought’.

In the physical world there are accidents when two cars try to occupy the same space but in the mind there are no accidents it is only because thought moves so fast they seem to be simultaneous. Our mental life is also made up of millions of thoughts that are not us. I am not these thoughts I’m writing today. I am not all the thoughts that flow through my mind each second. I am not what I think I am. Zen Buddhism’s “no Mind is a place free from the tyranny of thought. The place of transcendence of the mind where we can understand immediately and directly without the interpretation of thought. This place is the “….Reality of Me.”

In Christianity this is called the “Mind of Christ”, as Paul says “have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” The Spiritual Mind—The Reality of Me—is on the Spiritual level which is not the ‘me’ of the body or the mind it is the ME as created by God who individualized itself as each one of us. This Real Me is all those qualities we use to describe God in positive terms: Loving, Good, Peace, Joy, Abundance, Unlimited, All knowing, All Powerful, All Present, Light.

Meister Eckhart calls this Real Me the Aristocrat. Here are a few things he says about this Aristocrat: “He is taken up with the Love of God.” “He has forgotten the things of this temporal life and has been caught up into the likeness of God, having become a child of God. there is no higher grade, nothing beyond this. It is eternal rest and blessing–the end of the inner new man, eternal life.” God’s Son or Idea is like a flowing spring in the core of the soul.”

He starts out his essay this way: “Our Lord says in the gospel [Luke 19.12] ‘A Certain noble man went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.’ In these words our Lord teaches how noble man is by nature created and how divine, by grace, he may aspire to be. This is the point of a major part of the Holy Scripture.”

” When I am aware of the God-Self within me as my total fulfillment, I am totally fulfilled. I am now aware of this Truth. I have found the secret of life and I relax in the knowledge that the Activity of Divine Abundance is eternally operating in my life. I simply have to be aware of the flow, the radiation, of the Creative Energy, which is effortlessly pouring forth from my Divine Consciousness. I am now aware. I am now in the flow.”

It is. Everything is, right here right now, perfect. When Jesus said; ‘take no thought for tomorrow.’ he wasn’t necessarily talking about a literal 24 hours from now. He was talking about the tomorrow that is in the next second. Tomorrow is made up of countless future seconds. If I need not worry about the next second then the next 24 hours will certainly take care of itself.

If everything, every need is Abundantly and Divinely taken care of now, this instant, then it will continue on into the next and the next, on and on and on.

I am not blind to the issues we all face in this world, and I know that all those seeming troubles will be more easily solved through an attitude of surrender to this instant of perfection. If something is going wrong or traumatic our previous instants of surrender will have been good practice during those tough times.

Do I make plans for the future? of course I do. I also have needs and obligations to attend to. My past experience has taught me that all will go easier, smoother and lighter by surrendering this instant and the next and the next……..

As the lesson for today points out; “I have found the secret of life, and I relax in the knowledge that the Activity of Divine Abundance is eternally operating in my life.”

The spiritual life is one of relaxation. Here is a paraphrase from the Message of Matthew 11:28-30, “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Jesus

The proof of this in my life is that at 65 I’m still here and as I look back I can see how God has provided and protected and cared for me every step of the way. I could point out and argue about all the things that may seem negative about the past, or in the present for that matter, but that would be to easy to do. I had lessons to learn, however I’m still in the flow of Divine Perfection–old school theology calls it Divine Providence.

For a rose to produce a flower, every instant until the bloom, must be perfection. This also includes all the instants after the bloom, as the petals fall and decay to fertilize the ground to prepare the ground for the next flower. This is Perfection and Providence at work.

“My consciousness of the Spirit within me as my unlimited Source is the Divine Power to restore the years the locusts have eaten, to make all things new, to lift me up to the High Road of Abundant prosperity. This awareness, understanding and knowledge of Spirit appears as every visible form and experience that I could possibly desire.”

I can never be separated from God. Never. The realization of this truth is the beginning. I become “born again” when I know that I am not separate from God. Who or what I believe God to be will determine my experience of life because I will see God in everything. Is God angry? Then I will see an angry world and at the same time given myself permission to follow my Fathers example. I can be angry at whatever I think My Father is angry at. Is God Love? Then I will see a loving supporting and giving world. As I define love I will also be loving to that measure. Is it unconditional or conditional?

The radical Islamist who say they are killing and destroying in the name of God are convenient scapegoats, the extreme example, of all those who believe God hates such and such.

Jesus pointed out and proved by his actions, his own teaching to, “Love your enemy and do good to those who persecute you.” God has no enemies nor does he need to be defended in any way.

Is God both hate and Love? Then I will be a double minded person unable to see anything but a conflicted world. I will have Friends and enemies and as so often happens friends who become enemies. Friends I will embrace to some fashion and enemies I will kill in some fashion. Because of this viewpoint I will be in constant conflict. I may speak peace but it will not come from a peaceful heart.

Does God fight with Himself? There is no compromise here, God is one or the other, friend or foe. He is what he is before we have any reason to believe it. Before he created the universe was he Love? Did he change?

Maybe its no accident that towards the end of the Christian Bible Paul tells us that “the goal of our instruction is Love from a pure heart” (I Tim. 1,5). A Pure Heart to me means Unconditional Love. And John tells us God is Love and if we don’t Love we don’t know God.

It is the kingdom of the world which believes it is separate from God. That God is a God of hate and anger and retribution. No wonder the world is in the state it is in. Once the belief in our separation from God took hold we concluded that God hates us and wants to punish us.

Those of us who start to leave this worlds belief system carry with us the baggage of a hateful God. We will find ample proof of it in the Bible so continue to believe it is true. The Good news that Jesus came to bring is that this is not so. God is like Him and not like he is portrayed in many Old Testament passages.

Our journey to the Kingdom of God involves stripping away the old beliefs and replacing them with the God of Love, Support, Giving, Freeing, Joyous, Alive, non condemning and ever activating Life. This is our journey, the God of Love from a pure heart, the high road of Abundant Prosperity.

The Bible asks us to choose who we will serve?

The unlimited source of ALL Good or something else.

The Spirit of God in us will manifest according to our choice. We will see in the Holy Scriptures of any religion exactly what we want to see. And yes that applies to me.

“My inner supply instantly and constantly takes on form and experience according to my needs and desires, and as the Principle of my supply in action, it is impossible for me to have any needs or unfulfilled desires.”

Yesterday I used the analogy of electricity flowing through a wire and how consciousness directs its impersonal nature to a personal result.

My body is like the electrical wire. The wire is made of copper, plastic insulation, and a plug to connect to a socket. This wire has no energy of its own and with out any energy it is not a ‘live wire’. It can do nothing. My body is only a conduit for Divine Energy. It acts when and where directed instantly and constantly to meet my needs directed by my choices. There is no exception in a healthy body. If I plug into a brilliant spot light that is what I will manifest and experience. If I plug into a black light I will experience that as well.

This energy is constant, faithful, instant and dependable. It is an impersonal Law to be used as we direct it.

From the time I was born until I decided to take the spiritual route in life I was taught I was my body. I was taught my body was in charge and to blindly follow its dictates and demands. As a screaming baby demands attention when its needs are not met, this habit continued as an insistent entitlement until I started to change my perspective towards a more ‘spiritual’ outlook on Life.

Now on the Spiritual path I am learning to consciously harness this untamed energy into more constructive avenues. At times I still unplug from the bright spotlight and plug into the black light but now I know it is my choice to do so. This is a school after all.

“Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God,” says Paul. Why? because flesh and blood are not alive. Only life can enter into life. Only things of similar frequencies can communicate. Like attracts like. My body is not alive only my inner Divinity is connected to the Divine source of ALL life.

Choose Life.

“My inner supply instantly and constantly takes on form and experience according to my needs and desires, and as the Principle of my supply in action, it is impossible for me to have any needs or unfulfilled desires.”